Reincarnated Swordmaster

I was living another dreary day of my life today.

When I opened my eyes in the morning, my throat was parched. I wanted to eat a bowl of porridge, but once I quenched my thirst, I felt an indescribable emptiness stabbing at me. Shortly after, I went outside and started practicing the Six Harmonies Sword Technique as if it was second nature.

Six Harmonies Sword Technique.

It’s the most common sword technique in the Gangho (Jianghu)¹, and its basic move Six Harmonies Mountain Opening is considered rudimentary, which involves half-turning your body to the left and then swinging diagonally upwards with a counter movement. In simple terms, it’s nothing more than a diagonal slash. Even a novice can grasp how to perform it after a few tries.

So what about a set containing Six Harmonies Mountain Opening, a form of Six Harmonies Sword Technique?

It consisted of 32 movements in total, divided into eight forms. It’s said that an average person typically takes about a month to learn Six Harmonies Sword Technique. Even the lower-ranked bodyguards in the market need a month of training to master this Six Harmonies Sword form.

Moreover, they say it takes over five years of real combat experience to utilize all the movements of Liuhe Sword form seamlessly in actual combat. To reach the meticulous level of a master, one needs to have adequate internal energy to back it up, so it’s not far-fetched to say that it takes more than 40 years to reach the first-rate level.

And this year marked my 45th year since I began martial arts.

Yet, I was far from reaching the first-rate level, repetitively practicing the Six Harmonies Sword Technique in my shabby straw hut every day. In the Gangho, my level would, at best, be second-rate, a level that can be seen everywhere, nothing extraordinary.

“……”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Feeling like if I opened my mouth, only curses would pour out, I continued to swing my sword with a tight-lipped determination.

No matter how much I cursed, it wouldn’t change my life, so I just kept silent.

This was the minimum consolation I’ve learned from living such a garbage-like life for so long.

Why didn’t I train in any other swordsmanship than Six Harmonies Sword Technique?

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to train. I couldn’t train.

All I knew was the Six Harmonies Sword Technique and the Three Talents Heart Method for internal strength!

I stopped swinging my sword.

And after much thought, I eventually ended up cursing because my life was just so miserable.

“F*ck…”

I was an aspiring martial artist².

I didn’t come from a martial arts family to begin with, nor did I receive teachings under a famous martial artist. Even though I had no innate conditions to excel as a martial artist, I was still obsessed with learning martial arts while working as a courier in a courier guild. There was only one reason for that.

Because I thought that was the only way I could succeed.

I was ugly. I was so ugly that from a young age, women would grimace when they saw my face, and mean girls even spit at me. Among the men, the disdain wasn’t any different; a few handsome guys made fun of me or pulled my pants down.

Nor was my family well-off, so I drifted between ordinariness and poverty. At the age of twelve, when both of my parents had passed away, I was left under the care of a village head in the neighborhood. The village head used me like a servant, and I had to live like a servant to his son. Things got a little better when I became independent as a courier, but the experiences still left psychological scars.

So, as soon as I came of age to hold a sword properly, I applied to become a courier and worked in a courier guild for decades. Since the guild provided basic martial arts training to couriers, I thought I could succeed if I diligently learned them. I thought that if my shitty, ugly, and nobility-lacking life had the power of ‘martial arts’, somehow I could make it work.

And now I’ve realized that was a delusion.

The courier guild I belonged to was destroyed two years ago due to a single first-rate master. It was the Blood Phosphorus Hand, who had made a name for himself in the Central Plains, who had accepted an offer from another courier guild and invaded ours. The guild’s warriors died one by one at the hands of the Blood Phosphorus Hand, and although the guild leader managed to kill him in the end, the damage was irreversible.

Eventually, the guild leader declared the dissolution of the guild, and I was cast out into the world with the money I had earned until then. I say “cast out” because the money I had was only about fifty nyang, far from enough to sustain me through old age. In the end, I had no choice but to become a tenant farmer, living no better than a commoner.

But for the last hurray of my life, I rejected the life of a tenant farmer.

I had been learning martial arts from my late teens for decades. Although I only knew the Six Harmonies Sword Technique and the Three Talents Heart Method, I thought I might suddenly excel and strike it rich! With that in mind, I built a shack in the mountains and began endless training to reach the realm of the sword.

“… Ugh!!”

Two years into my training, I found myself huddled in a corner of a straw hut, shivering. I had no more strength left to swing my sword. The cold was unbearable.

‘Do I… have a cold…?’

This is ridiculous.

Don’t the martial arts experts in wuxia novels live in seclusion in the mountains, training hard with their robust health? But soon, I realized this was only to be expected. For two years, I lived off wild animals I caught and the roots and mushrooms I dug up around me. With the worn-out strength of a man in his late fifties, it was inevitable I’d end up this way.

And having a cold is dangerous. It’s not a simple illness – I don’t have the strength to recover and chase it away. If things continue as they are, I’ll be found as a common corpse in the mountains. With this thought, I quickly began to pack up my belongings in the hut and prepare to descend the mountain.

As I was packing my tools into a cloth bundle, tears began to fall.

“Ugh! *Cough*… *cough*… *sob*….”

Even in my feverish state due to the cold, the sadness hits me wave after wave.

How did I end up like this?

When I decided to descend the mountain, didn’t I plan to master swordsmanship and reign over the world?

But now, because of malnutrition and lack of strength, I’m descending to survive a mere cold. It’s preposterous.

Still, I must live.

So, I forced back my tears, put the cloth bundle on my back, and began to descend the mountain path. I needed to get to the village, which required at least two hours of trekking, so I began cautiously pushing through the rough shrubs.

I’d been walking for a while when…

“Ah, ugh!!”

Suddenly,

I felt the ground beneath me give way, and I felt as if I was being pulled into the ground. Just before I fell, I hurriedly grabbed onto a tree branch. As I hung from it, I looked down to find a cliff more than three meters high beneath me.

Fear washed over me. If I were one of those martial arts experts, I could easily land from a height of three meters using my lightness skill, but I was no expert. My internal strength is so weak I can barely fend off a cold, so if I fell, I would either die or become disabled. Feeling the branch about to snap, I quickly threw the bundle off my back to the ground below.

A crash echoed as all my tools broke. But at least I could avoid falling to my death immediately. I cautiously moved my hands and feet along the edge of the cliff, searching for a foothold. After several attempts, I managed to let go of the branch and found a place to step on the cliff.

Now, I had to either go down or climb up. After some consideration, I thought it would be easier to go down. The cliff had many crevices and ledges, and falling while climbing up could be disastrous. I moved with all my strength, forgetting even about my cold.

Shivering,

Finally, after breaking out in a cold sweat, I managed to reach a spot where I could firmly plant both feet. Just as I was catching my breath, I noticed a cave next to the cliff. A cave in the middle of a cliff – it was obviously man-made, and I felt a curiosity about it. I moved towards the cave. I couldn’t hang on the cliff forever, so it was an inevitable choice.

As I entered the cliff, it felt like I was barely alive. I wanted to collapse and sleep right there, but I had to ascertain what kind of place this cave was. So, I decided to walk further into the cave. The cave, devoid of any light, was quite deep, and I had to fumble along the wall for quite some time.

*Thud.*

I bumped into a stalactite, forming a lump on my head. I stifled a scream due to the pain and collapsed on the spot. And then, from afar, I noticed light seeping out and cautiously started crawling towards it.

The source of the light was a room where a glowing bead was embedded. It was clearly a place created artificially by someone! The moment I discovered this spectacle, I felt like I would go mad with joy.

“Hooray!”

Is this what they call a fateful encounter?

Something that I’ve only read in novels is actually happening in real life?

I was so happy that I felt a hot surge coming up my throat. And then, I began to approach the bead.

At that moment…

*Swoosh* – *Thud.*

“……”

What’s happening?

I felt a terrible pain surging in, and my vision started to blur. Then, I overcame a momentary memory lapse and realized what had happened. A sudden iron stake flew towards me from the front, piercing right through my stomach. Since my intestines were penetrated, it was inevitable for the terrible pain to surge.

Blood was gushing out. Blood burst out of my mouth uncontrollably.

“Uh, euk… eeek…”

I knelt down, waiting for the imminent death.

And I regretted it bitterly. If I hadn’t entered this cave, I wouldn’t be dying…

It was so obvious there would be a mechanism to protect the fateful item…

How could my life be so stupid and unlucky!

… Am I dying?

Am I dying just like this?

“Keuk… euk euk…”

No, it can’t be.

Even if I am to die, I must know what is in that box before I die!

With the last of my strength, I crawled towards the box. The copper box was within reach even with my dying strength. No, it would be accurate to say it was designed to open at the slightest touch from the beginning.

“This… this is…”

And just before I died, I thrust my right hand into the box, and I grabbed a book.

At the same time, due to excessive blood loss, my consciousness started to blur.

Now, I am dying.

This was my first death.

1. Martial arts world[↩]
2. Aspiring martial artists have the aim of becoming a master one day.[↩]

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